No, Spartan Founders Club members are not required to attend the Founders Club reunion each fall at the Burgess Institute’s on-campus Venture Summit. However, each member is invited and encouraged to attend.

Spartan Founders Club members will be invited to serve as student mentors for flagship Burgess Institute programming like 2Day Venture and the Burgess New Venture Challenge and will be considered for other signature engagement opportunities like guest lecturing in a classroom or speaking at our Innovate State speaker series.

Yes, there are! When prospective members complete the online form to join, they are prompted to either A.) make a one-time gift of $9,000 for the entirety of the initial three-year term, or B.) make an annual recurring gift of $3,000 for three years, or C.) customize the payment plan to reach the annual commitment (i.e. $250 per month for 12 months).

The Spartan Founders Club is open to Spartans & Friends who are interested in supporting MSU’s campus-wide student entrepreneurship program and committed to the terms of the initiative. Ideally, those who are entrepreneurs, executives, investors, or innovators in industry will be inspired to join this new community of student entrepreneurship supporters. Members do not need to be alumni of Michigan State University.

Yes! When completing the online form, members can indicate their interest in joining a new Spartan Angel Network, which will be facilitated by the MSU Research Foundation in collaboration with the Burgess Institute.

In order to join the Spartan Angel Network, you must be a member of the Spartan Founders Club.

Wishing to learn more about the Spartan Angel Network? See the Angel Network FAQ below.

Angel investors generally are high net-worth individuals who make high-risk, potentially high-yield investments in start-up companies or small businesses looking to expand their market opportunities. Angel investors typically focus on companies that have already developed a basic concept and business strategy, and are in the seed stage of investment. An emphasis is placed on business enterprises with the potential for rapid growth.

The Spartan Angel Network members are required to be affiliated with Michigan State University, be accredited investors, sign a membership agreement and be a member of the Spartan Founder’s Club.  

To be an accredited investor an individual must have over $200,000 in annual earned income (or $300,000 together with a spouse) or have a net worth of over $1 million (excluding the value of their primary residence). For more information on accredited investor requirements, please see the SEC’s accredited investor bulletin, including the information regarding calculating net worth.

Spartan Angel Network members will have the opportunity to invest in MSU-affiliated startups. Companies must generally meet the following criteria to be presented to the membership:

• Have a founder or executive in the C-suite that is an MSU alum, faculty, staff, student, or parent;
• Be raising seed or Series A equity capital of $300,000 to $3 million or syndicating later-stage equity financings with an existing institutional lead investor; and
• Be located in the United States.

The Spartan Angel Network connects its members to companies seeking capital, which may have the potential for high growth and significant financial returns. When filtering opportunities for review by Spartan Angel Network members, the Spartan Angel Network operating team generally looks for the following attributes:

• A large market opportunity;
• A unique value proposition;
• Proprietary technology, intellectual property, or other basis for sustained competitive advantages;
• A dedicated management team;
• A corporate structure that allows for equity investment at defined terms and conditions; and
• A strategy and plan that has the potential to produce venture grade returns.

The Spartan Angel Network’s operating team actively seeks input and feedback on members’ areas of interest and focuses its efforts on areas in which members have particular preferences.

While there are no minimum annual investment amounts for Spartan Angel Network members, companies may set an investment minimum per Angel investor in their funding round (company minimums typically range from $10,000 – $25,000). Although it is not required, we encourage individual members to invest in at least one Spartan Angel Network investment per year.

Company Sourcing

• Actively seeking out investment opportunities that fit with member preferences.
• Developing early access to investment opportunities with companies where the Burgess Institute Spartan Innovations have previously developed a trusted relationship.
• Developing unique access to financing where entrepreneurs or other investors agree to reserve an allocation for the Spartan Angel Network.  

Company Communication and Information Sharing

• Communicating throughout the process with applying companies.
• Gathering and packaging detailed information for each company for efficient consumption by members.

Company Screening  

• Reviewing all companies, which often includes a company pitch/meeting.
• Filtering deals based on the strength of the business and the fit with member preferences. 

Due Diligence

• Defining diligence requirements.
• Gathering additional information from companies.
• Performing independent research, analysis, and gathering insights from relevant experts.
• Compiling diligence results and summarizing findings, based on pre-defined diligence rubrics.  

Event Management

• Planning, scheduling, and coordination of pitch events and networking events for Spartan Angel Network members.

The Spartan Angel Network and the Burgess Institute are not venture funds, investment banks, broker-dealers, investment clearinghouses, investment portals, investment advisors, tax, accounting or financial advisors, and The Spartan Angel Network and the Burgess Institute are not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or any state securities commission. Rather, the Spartan Angel Network is a forum in which members may discuss various aspects of investment and business, as well as be introduced to companies for possible investment. The Spartan Angel Network and the Burgess Institute do not provide advice, recommendation, or any other indication of appropriateness or inappropriateness of a particular investment brought to the attention of the Spartan Angel Network. The Spartan Angel Network and the Burgess Institute do not endorse any investment opportunity, make no independent investigation to verify information provided by companies submitting to the Spartan Angel Network for presentation or otherwise, and make no representation or warranty regarding the same.

The operating team provides support throughout the investment process, including:

• Sourcing deal opportunities to supplement deal referrals from members;
• Screening initial company applications;
• Managing information dissemination between the companies and members;
• Managing process and communications during diligence; and
• Performing diligence tasks and analysis as needed based on pre-defined diligence rubrics. 

The team does not provide investment recommendations. All investment decisions are made by individual members and all investments are made directly from members to companies.